In software development, Continuous Integration is the practice of merging all developers’ working code to the main or head branch several times a day. This makes other practices from Automated Builds -> Continuous Delivery possible. Note: contrary to popular belief, Continuous Integration is the habit of frequent checkins and not the build automation. The automated builds are the supporting tools that make CI practical.
CI works by increasing the frequency of integration, so that most changes are small. Anything that works against that pattern (e.g. infrequent checkins, long-lived code branches, etc.) will harm the team and their code base.
Resource Links:
- Continuous Integration – Martin Fowler
- Continuous Integration Patterns and Anti-Patterns
- Continuous Integrations! Where to Start?
- It’s Not CI, It’s Just CI Theatre
- Keep your code spotless with Gradle
- Key Principles for Reducing Continuous Integration Build Time
- What is database continuous integration?
- Why Distributed CI is the Logical Next Step
Mark Levison has been helping Scrum teams and organizations with Agile, Scrum and Kanban style approaches since 2001. From certified scrum master training to custom Agile courses, he has helped well over 8,000 individuals, earning him respect and top rated reviews as one of the pioneers within the industry, as well as a raft of certifications from the ScrumAlliance. Mark has been a speaker at various Agile Conferences for more than 20 years, and is a published Scrum author with eBooks as well as articles on InfoQ.com, ScrumAlliance.org an AgileAlliance.org.
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